X-bit labs

Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR and DDR Review

Category: Video

by FastSite

[ 02/11/2001 | 12:00 AM ]

Speaking about the latest achievements in the graphics market we seem to have left out Matrox with its G450 graphics product,launched not so long ago. Being nothing special in 3D graphics, Matrox G450 still offers brilliant 2D quality and cool DualHeadtechnology, which makes this card attractive for some users.

Table of contents:

• Matrox G450 Chip
  
• Closer Look
  
• Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR
  
• Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR
  
• DualHead
  
• Drivers
  
• Testbed and Methods
  
• Performance
  
• Conclusion
  

It is generally known that the fastness and dexterity of monsters that haunt the players is strongly determined by the abilities of the graphics card. However, not only Quake matters in this life... As a rule, in our everyday work we do not need any fantastic fps rates, but higher screen refresh rates, high-quality image and no blurring effect in the most frequently used resolutions. Today there is a good choice of graphics cards. Traditionally, the highest 2D quality is associated with cards by Matrox. Its products have always been known for outstanding performance and perfect 2D images.

Let us take Matrox G400 card as an example: it boasts clear image at top resolutions provided by the powerful RAMDAC, then it has two 128bit memory buses, supports DualHead Display technology, which allows plugging two displays to the same card. Furthermore, hardware implementation of Environment Mapped Bump Mapping technology makes Matrox G400 especially attractive. Finally, smart drivers used to ensure good 3D performance against the background of the impeccable image quality some time ago.

As a result, products by Matrox have long been a privilege of graphics tycoons and professional designers only.

Matrox G450 Chip

Unlike G400 graphics processor, G450 is manufactured with 0.18 micron technology, i.e. this graphics chip is cheaper and hence the end-products based on it are also cheaper. In spite of this fact, the graphics cards based on G450 are presently available for $110 (Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR) and $90 (Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR), which is not much lower than the cost of G400 based cards. However, it's undoubtedly up to the manufacturer to define the pricing policy in this or that way.

Switching over to a finer 0.18 micron technology also eliminates the chipset overheating problem. That's why Matrox decided not to use any active cooling like in case of G400. There are two independent RAMDACs (by G400 the second RAMDAC was external) and two CRTS modules (required for the mentioned above DualHead technology) integrated into a single G450 chip. G450 uses a 64bit memory bus while G400 features a 128bit one. To make up for a narrower memory bus, so that it didn't affect the performance, Matrox has provided G450 graphics cards with DDR SDRAM support. In theory, it should help prevent the performance from dropping below the certain level. These seem to be the only architectural changes between G400 and G450, so, as you see, the difference between them is not that outrageous.

As the 3D part of the new chip remained unchanged, G450 is unlikely to become a performance leader in games. That means that the graphics cards built on this processor will attract only those, who work with 2D-graphics, for instance users working with web-design and computer make-up.

Closer Look

Now let us place the cards in the spotlight. We have tested two graphics cards based on G450 with 16MB SDR SDRAM and DDR SDRAM.

Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR

The card is designed on a standard green textolite PCB. Since most components are integrated right into the graphics processor, the card is relatively compact in size. As you can see, the card features an Output port for a second monitor and no active cooling system. There is only a heatsink fixed on the G450 processor, and it's quite enough to cool it down. The chip works at the frequency of 125MHz.

The board is equipped with 16MB DDR SGRAM by SAMSUNG with 6ns access time. It should be noted that the retail version of G450 based cards is equipped 32MB video memory, while for 2D graphics - which is the major application for these cards - 16MB is more than enough. Therefore, we can barely regard such memory capacity of the tested samples as a drawback.

According to the specs, the memory on this card is clocked at 166MHz. Still, if we take into account that this graphics card features DDR memory, we will get the overall of 333MHz. This memory frequency should theoretically provide 2.7GB/sec memory bus bandwidth.

Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR

If we put both the tested cards side by side, we shall find no differences whatsoever. But as it turns out after a more careful observation, the first judgment is false. The card is built on G450 as well, but since there is no DDR memory used on it, it features a different layout. The chip is clocked at 125MHz, the memory - at 166MHz. The card is equipped with 16MB SDRAM by SAMSUNG with 6ns access time. The memory bus has 1.3GB/sec bandwidth.

As it comes from the name of the card, it features a TV-Out, but there are no supplementary connectors on it. Matrox implemented this option via an adapter, which may be supplied together with the card. In our case, it was accompanying Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR.

The adapter let's you use S-Video and a Composite Out. Only Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR graphics cards go with an adapter like that, though Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR cards can also support output onto the TV screen with the help of this adapter. It is worth mentioning that no other graphics cards but those built on G450 support this adapter.

To complete the description of the tested graphics cards, let us compare their features and see, how greatly they differ from G400 based cards.

We received both cards built on G450 graphics processor in OEM packages, so there was just the card itself, a CD and an adapter for Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR inside the box.

DualHead

G450 graphics processor supports one of Matrox' brand technologies - the famous DualHead. This technology serves to send the video signal from the graphics card independently to two displays or to a display and a TV set. As we have already mentioned, G450 graphics processor has two integrated RAMDACs. Due to them both the images are generated separately. Now, if you plug a TV set to one Out and a PC display to another one, you won't have to spoil your eyesight, staring at a display with only 50Hz of screen refresh rate. Working with G400 it's impossible to set different frame rates for two receivers. That gives a very unpleasant feeling when a TV set is engaged.

The two RAMDACs of G450 support 360MHz and 230MHz frequencies respectively. It means that even at the highest resolutions the image is clear and has no blurring at the edges. After a display or a TV set is plugged to the second Out, a dialog box, where one can adjust DualHead settings, appears in the drivers.

DualHead technology can work in several modes - Multi-Display, Clone, Zoom and DVDMax. Now we would like to give some details on each of them.

Multi-Display mode implies treating the secondary display as an extension of the desktop. It comes in handy when you work with graphics applications. For example, you may have the processed image on the main screen, while all the tools are available on the secondary one. Working in Windows 98 one can set the resolution and the screen refresh rate for each of the monitors individually.

The name of the Clone mode speaks for itself. In this mode you will have the same image on both screens.

Zoom mode is meant for changing the size of the image on one of the displays. You may, for instance, put out an enlarged fragment of an image separately on the secondary display.

DVD Max mode allows you to do another amusing thing. On one display (or TV-screen) you may watch a full-screen DVD film, while the other screen stays free for work.

For a long time Matrox was the only manufacturer, whose products supported two displays plugged to one graphics card. In the meanwhile, things don't remain unchanged. Recently NVIDIA implemented a new technology, TwinView, on its graphics cards with GeForce2 MX core. This technology allows using two displays with one card, too. After comparing the abilities of DualHead and TwinView, it was revealed that both technologies let work at high resolutions. Thus, in Multi-Display mode Matrox Millennium G450 graphics cards ensured a top resolution of 1600x1200 on the main display (SAMSUNG SyncMaster 900IFT, 19") in 24-bit color mode and with70Hz refresh rate, and the achievements on the secondary display (ViewSonic P775, 17") were only 16-bit color and 70Hz refresh rate at the same top 1600x1200 resolution.

The graphics card built on NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with TwinView technology showed the following results: on the first display 1600x1200x32 with 75Hz refresh rate, on the second one 1280x1024x32 with 85Hz refresh rate.

As we have found out, top achievements are almost the same in both cases, but G450 cards have demonstrated far better 2D quality. Although NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics cards have ensured a bit higher screen refresh frequency, the image was very unclear and washed out, while Matrox Millennium G450 provided a fine high-quality image absolutely free from blurring. Even on the secondary monitor Matrox Millennium G450 gave a better picture than NVIDIA GeForce2 MX-based cards did on the primary one. The image, which Matrox Millennium G450 provided on the primary monitor was close to an absolute perfection.

Drivers

The enclosed CD contains a 6.03. version driver. After the driver is installed, a bunch of bookmarks appears in the system tray. They help to adjust the graphics card's settings.

Testbed and Methods

For testing we used the following testbed:

• Intel Pentium III 1000 CPU;
• ASUS CUSL2 mainboard;
• 256MB (2 modules x 128MB) PC133 SDRAM by Hyundai;
• WD Caviar 22000 HDD.

We tested in Microsoft Windows'98 and 6.03. drivers.

For a better comparison with Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR and Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR we chose Matrox Millennium G400 and NVIDIA GeForce2 MX (SUMA GeForce2 MX TwinView) graphics card.

We used the following testing tools for our investigation:

• Quake3 Arena v1.16n;
• Video 2000 v1.1;
• 3Dmark 2000 Pro;
• WinBench 2000 (Business Graphics WinMark and High-End Graphics WinMark).

Performance

We are fully aware of the fact that graphics cards based on GeForce2 MX work faster than G450 cards - at least thanks to their more advanced architecture. Nevertheless, we included 3D games in the list of the tests as well. At the same time, please, keep in mind that G450 is not intended for games, it is originally oriented towards professional 2D applications.

First we tested our participants in Quake3 Arena with demo001:

There is not much to comment on, actually. The leading positions in this test are firmly occupied by NVIDIA GeForce2 MX. Surprising as it might seem, an older graphics card based on G400 demonstrates better results than G450 card. This failure of G450 is obviously caused by greater capacity and bandwidth of the memory buses of the card's competitors.

The next test we turned to was 3DMark 2000 Pro:

As in the previous case, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX graphics card proves to be the best. Cards built on G450 chip are lagging behind again, losing even to the older G400 card.

With the help of WinBench we could estimate the 2D speed.

As Business Graphics WinMark shows, the winner is NVIDIA GeForce2 MX again, then comes Matrox Millennium G400 followed by Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR and Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR.

Now come the results obtained in High-End Graphics WinMark:

In this test Matrox Millennium G400 breaks ahead and overtakes all the tested graphics cards.

We also tested in MadOnion Video2000. This test allows assessing how well and fast a graphics card can decode the video stream (like DVD or MPEG, for example).

G400 sample wins the laurels, then follow the cards based on G450.

Conclusion

To put it short, Matrox Millennium G450 16MB DDR and Matrox Millennium G450 16MB SDR graphics cards are not the best graphics choice you could make. They are complete losers when used in games, and these cards' 2D abilities are better than those of their predecessors only when the quality is concerned.

Despite all these criticism-provoking points, graphics cards of the kind may be interesting for those, who need to work with two displays. If we compare DualHead and TwinView technology, which is used in NVIDIA GeForce2 MX based cards, we will have to admit that DualHead is more advanced and smart.

The only tangible difference between G400 and G450 is higher quality of DualHead technology, introduced in G450. From our point of view, it is at the same time the only advantage of these graphics cards.